#56 - Do it with me : let’s plan out your launch emails!

There is one thing that you have to do every single time, and that is you have to send emails.

This is the Doing It Online podcast with your Host, serial entrepreneur, 6 and 7 figure funnel strategist and super nerd Kate McKibben, where every week we're here talking, nerdy and sharing the things that actually work to help you do what you do online. But better, easier, and with a ton more profit too. Are you ready? Let's do it it.

Hello. Hello, everybody. It is Kate here from hello Funnels, and welcome to episode number 56 of the Doing It Online podcast. And today I wanted to roll up my sleeves with you and to dive in to what I call a Doing it with me episode because I wanted to step you through something really, really freaking useful and practical. And that is I want to step you through the plan, I guess, for how to write your launch emails. Because I've been launching online products now for, well, let's say since 2007. So that's a few, that's a few years and a few launches in that time. And one thing, you know, like, while we've tried all kinds of different tactics, whether it's webinars, challenges, all that stuff, regardless of which of those you use or don't use or what combination you use them, there is one thing that you have to do every single time, and that is you have to send emails. You have to send launch emails to your list. That's why you've been list building, right? So it means you don't have to be just relying on running ads to cold audiences the whole time. I'm sure I don't need to convince you of the purpose of sending emails to your list during a launch, but I wanted instead to jump in and kind of help you because I know how much it can freaking suck, particularly when you know you are in the middle of planning a launch or maybe you're flying by the seat of your pants a bit and sort of, you know, launching while you create. It can be really difficult to sit down when your brain's in that mode of, like, frenzy and come up with some really great ideas and think of, like, what is it that I need to send? What should I say? And, and there is, you know, as much as flying by the seat of your pants can work, and I did it for years, there are touch points, there are things that you need to cover off in any launch email sequence. And over time, I've sort of gotten that down into a bit of a formula. As with everything, you know, I'm this is kind of what I do. I do something a couple of times and it works well. And I'm like, right, how can we systemize the shit out of that? Because, you know, that's how you're able to move forward. And that's how I find anyway in my business I'm able to actually be more creative because I put these little structures in place and these little containers in place that sort of take away the unnecessary thinking and that just leaves my brain free to do the fun stuff. So let's dive in and that's what I'm going to do. In the episode today. I'm going to walk you through my launch email formula. Now, one little caveat on Chuck on the start is this isn't a set in stone. Every single launch we do follows this exact sequence. It's a starting point. Sometimes your launches will be longer, sometimes they will be shorter. Sometimes there's going to be some extra cool things you're doing in there that will need their own emails. But I want you to use this as just like your baseline skeleton structure for getting started. You sit down with this structure, flesh it out and then make it your own. Reorder things if you want to add in. If you know your audience well, you definitely know your audience better than I know your audience. You know, you'll know. Maybe your audience needs more of one type of email and less of another. So the emails I'm gonna take you through and I'm gonna take you through a 10 email sequence, which is kind of a, kind of a standard email length, which I will probably surprise a lot of people, but that's probably roughly the average number of emails people send in a again, a standard open cut. And of course some people's open cut periods are three days, some people's at two weeks, most people's is somewhere in between there. And obviously the number of emails you're going to send and the frequency and all of that is, is going to vary. So like I said, this is a skeleton for you to start with and then take it and make it your own. But I wanted to really explain what those different emails were and the purpose of each one as well. So that when you are making it your own, you kind of doing it with this informed, it's an informed decision. You're going, yes, I'm going to add more of this. And the reason I'm going to do that is because rather than just being like, I need an email today. What can I write that'll do? It's a Very different way of creating content, I promise. So before we dive into the 10 emails, I wanted to just talk about two things you need to keep in mind. So first of all is email length. Now this is something I want you to feel free to play with and experiment with and to absolutely make sure you are mixing up throughout the sequence. Because it used to be that most launch emails were novels. They're so freaking long. And I think as it happens more and more people are wanting bite sized content, they're wanting snackable content. But you know, where do you find that balance? Because obviously with a launch, you know, with a special offer you've pro, you've got details that you need to share. So that's one thing I want you to feel free to play with and one thing I want you to when you're looking at your emails at the end to go, okay, have I put enough sort of of each in here? Is I want you to have both longer emails and just short snackable ones as well. And those short snackable ones can be a paragraph, they can be super short if you can get them that's you know, short and snappy can be work amazingly well. And the longer ones, again try not to make them too long but just if you are going to do these longer emails, just please just formatting wise just make sure you, you've got some images, you've got headings in there so the people who scan are not going to get overwhelmed and they're going to get the information they need. So that's sort of experiment number one, making sure you're varying between both short and long emails. And if someone, and I'm sure someone's sitting there going but okay, if I'm going to have more of one, which one is it? Again that's really up to you. But I would probably say particularly if you've got a good sales page because that should have all your details on it anyway, right that I would be leaning more towards having more of the shorter style emails and then letting your sales page do all the work. So you use those shorter emails to really just sort of get people curious and interested and they click through for more. They one again, one thing to test is you'll probably notice if you look at your click through rates that generally shorter emails get higher clicks. So just one thing again to play with. But yeah, short would be my preference and as a consumer as well. But that's one thing I always put back onto my clients when they're sort of asking me these questions like should it Be more X or should it be more Y? It's like take a second to think about, like you as a consumer. How do you like to purchase? How do you like to be sold to? Because we all do like to be sold to. We wouldn't buy things, we wouldn't spend our afternoons wandering around shopping centers as a, you know, a fun activity. We didn't like being sold to. And there's certain things which are always going to be unique to individuals of the way you like to be sold to. Like, do you like a longer story or do you like it shorter and snappier? One thing I've noticed over time is that generally the people who you attract into your world are probably going to be people who similar to you and who resonate with similar things to you. Because obviously it's what you're saying, what you're putting out there is what they're connecting with. And those people often, not always will have similar buying preferences to you. So how does this relate is when you are going, oh, you know what, I just can't stand a long freaking email. I never read them, I see them, I delete them, blah, blah. If that is you, you can probably safely assume that a majority, at least of people who, who follow you probably feel the same way. So you feel free to, when you are making these decisions about how you plan out launches or anything to do with sales and marketing is to sit back and go, well, what do I enjoy? What feels good to me? And you can pretty safely assume, as I said, that a lot of people in your audience will feel similarly to you. And so you can base it, you know, make the decision based on what you like, how you like to be sold to. Anyway, sorry, I've gone down a rabbit hole there and I could talk about that all day. So that's the first thing, short versus long. The second thing I want you to make sure that you are having enough of both. And this one, you do need to have both. And again, it's kind of the opposite here of the short versus long is that you are going to have people in your audience who are both of these and who need each of these. So most people again tend to favor one or the other. But this is where you're going to need to kind of like pull back and whichever one you are favoring more, I would just encourage you to make sure that you've got an equal amount of the other. So what I'm talking about here is content that speaks to either logical or emotional buyers because the people in Your audience are going to be one or the other. And again, this is something where it is usually more of a 50, 50 split. So you don't, or at least there's going to be even 30, 70, you don't want to be ignoring that 30% of people. So by logical versus emotional, what I mean is some people like I, for example, I am an emotional buyer. I am a person who see, I see a deadline and you got me. I, you know, I'm not one of these people who goes, I'm going to go away and think about it. I'm like, oh, that sounds good, I'll buy that. It's a very generally a quick decision for me. And that's what happens with emotional buyers is they're quite quick to decide. They're the ones who, when you look at your sort of sales pattern over an open cart period, they're the ones who buy in the first couple of days and in the last couple of days. Your logical buyers, they're the ones who buy in between. And so your emotional buyers, they need stories, they need deadlines, they need connection with you. Your logical buyers, they need all of your frequently asked questions, they need all of their objections answered, they need stats, they need to know exactly what's happening in the program, all the details when it's happening. You know, they're the ones who, they need to tick off these certain things in their mind first before they can make a purchase. So again, most people will tend to, when they're creating content, will tend to lean more towards one side or the other, like Mo. And that side you lean to is probably the way that you tend to sort of resonate in the stuff that you really connect with as well. So again, just make sure when you are mapping out your content and then once it's created, when you go back through it, just go, have I got enough content in here for my logical peeps and for my emotional peeps, like, have I made sure I'm keeping everybody's. Everybody happy? And if you do that and sort of, you know, sprinkle them both through evenly, you're probably going to find you get even better conversions than if you really are favoring one or the other. Those are my two little things to keep in mind to start with. So let's dive in to these emails. So first up is what I call email zero, because this email actually goes out usually the day before your cart opens. And it's a little bit of a teaser, a little bit of a, like, hey, I'm so excited. Something Amazing is coming. You know, make sure you check your inbox back tomorrow. Short, sweet. Just letting them know that something is coming. That's a bonus one, by the way. It doesn't count in the 10, but it's one I, you know, I like to add in there. So the first official email in your open cart sequence, this one tends to be your long one. This one is going to be, this is what I call the share the excitement and all the details email. So in this one, you are going to be really trying to speak to both the logical and emotional buyers here. So for the emotional buyers, you're going to be coming in and like I said, sharing how excited you are to be opening the cart for your offer and why you're excited, whether it's because you've added new things or because of how passionate you are about of the topic or because how much fun it was last time or because people have been asking you for it or, you know, whatever, because how much you just love delivering it, whatever it is. Think about, you know, one of those stories and, you know, go in and make sure people know that just how excited you are. Because those people who are those emotional buyers, they're going to need to connect with you on that. They're going to share that excitement with you and that for them is going to be enough to kind of click through. It's like, oh, wow, something exciting is happening. I love exciting things. In we go, your logical buyers, they're going to be the ones who keep scrolling down and they're going to be ones who want to know the details. So this is where in that email you really list out everything that's happening, timings, bonuses, all of that stuff. So this one becomes like your, you know, the chunkiest of your emails. So that's the share the excitement and all the details. Second email you send is where we're going straight for the emotional buyers here, but this is where we share, like, think about one of your very best customer stories and you're going to share that in an email that is sort of, you can share it in a way that isn't just, hey, I'm sharing this great story. It's sharing in a way that comes across as really educational. So I like to think of it as attainable inspiration. So it's about saying, hey, here's how someone just like you did that thing that you're trying to do as well. So, and the headlines, you'll see them like now just kind of sharing this formula with you. You'll see it not just on our emails, but from all of the emails. But it's normally like, you know, how a busy mum of three, you know, made a million dollars overnight or something. You know, obviously that's probably a bit of a clickbaity headline but you know, it's always like how, you know, insert descriptive factor that they're going to relate to. Then did you know this outcome that they want? So it makes them go, oh, that person's like me and they did it. And then you go in and that email really is, it's talking through the journey of this, you know, your client. So where they started, why they were struggling while they were stuck, the things that they thought were reasons they couldn't do it. And all of this is going to have the, your reader going, yes, that's me, I understand that, yes, I connect with that. Yes, yes, yes. And then you're going to share how by joining your program and maybe you talk about one or two of the things that you worked with them on, they were able to get X results and that's just going to really help them to really get, get step into the shoes of that person, to really relate and to see in a really practical way how your program can help them. So that's the share the killer customer story email. And that's email number two. Again, that one's probably a bit of a, bit of a longer one. So now email number three, it's time for something short and sweet. And this is what I used I love to call the imagine if email. So this is where you want to paint them, that picture that, you know, and literally it's a, you know, imagine if, you know, six months from now or 12 months from now. Like think of a time zone or sorry, timeframe that is relevant for your outcome and your program. You could be doing X, this could be easy. This could be like just paint that picture of where they're wanting to be and you, you probably have copy like this on your, your sales page, right? So you can, you can take that and tweak it and, and you know, that's a nice little time saver from me to you. But you know, short, sweet, paint that picture and then at the end it's just like if you'd like some help getting there or I'd love to help you get there or I'd love to make it as easy as possible for you to get there, click here. Join me now just, it's really more of a soft approach. Email number four. It's time for those logical buyers to get another little hit because that last email would not have spoken to them at all. So it's now it's frequently asked questions time. So you want to come in and again, you can grab this from your sales page. One thing that we experimented with recently and it seemed to work really well, was I actually recorded a short little video and I just used loom. You know, you can use whatever you've got answering each of the questions. So you can do a bit more detail then like, you know, they're just two to three minute long videos, but you know, again, it's better for connection, but you can answer in a bit more detail than what you can in writing out just an faq. So what we did was we listed all the questions and linked to each of the videos. Email number five, this is what I call fire hose them with feedback. So again, now, if they're still opening emails at this point, it's again, it's usually those logical buyers and it's those ones who, they just need a little bit more proof. They just need to know that, you know, you can be trusted, that people like them have had success with this program before. So this is where you're going to just grab every screenshot you have, every testimonial you have, and usually we sort of frame this email as a, hey, don't take it from me. I'll let some of my amazing clients, you know, tell you why you should join. And it's just screenshot, screenshot, screenshot, screenshot. So just sharing all these ones, ones that talk about results, ones that talk about how great you are to work with, ones that talk about certain ahas or how things have been, certain parts of the program have been really useful or been really helpful or how it's been absolutely way more than worth the money. All those things in there, just fire hose them. And of course, link at the bottom, link at the bottom for all of these guys, it's got a link to your sales page. Email number six is where you pop in another killer story. So again, think about another testimonial and if for those of you who are, this is a new program and you don't have a client story yet, you know, feel free to use your own story. If this is again as a journey or an outcome that you yourself have gone on, it's totally okay to be sharing that as well. Email number seven, it's time to call out an objection and answer it. So I want you to think about what is one of and objections I sort of like to Interchange with the word excuse. It's not always, but sometimes it's relevant. But when people are interested in buying your program and they're the ones that they're just hovering with their mouse over the buy now button and they're not taking action, like, what is that thing at the back of their head saying? That's like, oh, why is now not the right time? Is it something they think they're not ready for yet or they can do later or, you know, that's they need to do something else first or there's a reason why it wouldn't work for them. Think about what those things are and just pick one of the most, you know, the most common ones and call them out on it. Say, hey, I know a lot of you, a lot of you are sitting there right now thinking about joining and you're not because you think X. And I just wanted to tell you that that's total BS or whatever it is, but you know, like, answer it for them, let them know that isn't true and tell them why and give them as much any social proof. Talk about stories, talk about the things that you've got in the program that sort of help address that or any maybe bonuses that you have. You know, anyone who's worked with me before knows that we have a special sort of strategy around using bonuses and how that works with objections. But, you know, call them out on it, Let them like be direct, let them go. Oh yeah, I was thinking that because those moments when they have that, like, oh, it's like they're talking directly to me. Those are where you get that really good connection and that's going to really help with prompting people to take action. So call them out on it and let them know why that objection just doesn't apply and why they should still join. Anyway, email number eight is where we go. Another really short and sweet one and it's like literally a sentence or two and you want this one to look like a personal email straight from you and it's just going to be like, hey, doors are closing soon. Do you have any questions for me or would you like my help on this? And if so, if you've got any questions, let me know. And make sure that those emails, the replies to that email come to you and that you are answering them. Make sure they're not just disappearing into an unattended inbox somewhere. And then emails 9 and 10 really are just your countdown emails. The what are you waiting for? The embed a countdown timer, if you can, in them. Let you know, again, short, sweet, reiterate what they're going to miss out on if they don't take action when those doors close. And just a big ass button. And that's all that you need. And I usually would send on your last day at least two emails letting people know that those doors are closing. And that's it guys. That is a sequence and you can at every launch go through this formula. And as I said, feel free to mix up the order if you like, if it makes more sense or add in some here or take some out. But using that as your skeleton over and over again to create your launch content is what I've been doing for years. It works really well for us. I hope it works really well for you. If you have found this useful, make sure you tag us over on Insta at hellofunnels. And I would love, love love if you have any other online BFF peeps that you share this episode with them because I hope that they will get a lot out of it as well. But that's it for me this week guys. As I said, I hope you found it super valuable. Let us know if you have. Otherwise I'll see you same time, same channel next week for another episode. See you then. Bye.

Thanks so much for listening to the Doing it online podcast. If you love this episode, don't forget to subscribe and leave us a review. And if you're ready to take your online course sales to the next level with your own six or seven figure funnel, let Kate show you exactly how today@stealmyfunnel.com.

Sam.